Ardaf Cluj, a company the Insurance Surveillance Commission (CSA) placed under receivership in mid-July, in the first six months of the year reported losses topping 82.4 million RON (23.2 million euros), according to the company's H1 report.

The losses were generated by the reassessment of technical reserves, says Radu Cocea, the receiver CSA designated to run the company during this period.

Ardaf at the end of the first half had gross technical reserves standing at 157.7 million RON (over 44.5 million euros), double the value posted in the first half of last year. Insurance companies set up technical reserves so as to be able to meet future potential obligations to the insured.

Ardaf is now under receivership as its liquidity coefficient had dropped below 1, the limit set by law, with the main move the receiver proposed to turn the company around being a share capital increase by 180.2 million RON (51m euros). According to the receiver, undersized technical reserves and insurance premiums hurt the company's financial situation.

Revenues posted by Ardaf in the first half of the year amounted to 127 million RON (35.9m euros), 60.8% of the value budgeted for this period. The insurer's expenses were almost 65 percent higher than the budgeted figure, coming to 209.5 million RON (59.2 million euros).

Revenues from gross premiums underwritten stood at 122.7 million RON (34.7m euros) at the end of June, with the total number of insurance contracts Ardaf sealed during the first six months of this year exceeding 555,000.

Compared with the first six months of 2005, the company's gross premiums underwritten slipped 21.79 percent in RON. Car civil liability insurance contracts (RCA) account for almost 61 percent of total subscriptions.

The majority stakeholder in Ardaf is businessman Ovidiu Tender, who owns approximately 70 percent in th